Official Luthiers Forum!

I am currently in the middle of my first build. This experience is quite remarkable. There is so much more depth, complexity and inner reflection going on than I ever imagined. One thing I have been wondering is how the "first" guitar experience is for other people. I am hearing, on the forum, about people's experiences as they are in the same "beginners" boat that I am but how was it for the old timers? How bout someone who's on their 5th or 6th build?

This question has maybe been asked more than once but, what was your first guitar building experience like? Was it what you expected? Was it easy, hard, frustrating, exhilarating, complicated, simple or did you even think about it much? Did it change your inner life much? How long did it take you? Did you build all the templates and jigs necessary for subsequent builds or did you just get through the first guitar? Did you take a class, have an experienced builder help you or did you hack your way through on your own? I have many questions but I'd mostly be interested to hear your experiences.

I guess I'd fall into the category of hacking my way through on my own (thank god for this forum!). I am building all of my jigs and trying to set myself up for many more guitars to come. I am almost at the end of my second year. It's hard to get enough free time to go all out, not to mention the $ it takes to keep going. I am a cabinetmaker and furniture builder by trade so I have some woodworking skills. Guitarbuilding, however, introduces the monumental factor of sound. This new world seems endless in its complexity. So far, I have had to be patient beyond words, humble to the core, learn how to slow down, back up, not give up, be gentle with myself, push myself and above all enjoy myself. Time seems to be absent when I'm in my shop on this guitar - a very good sign. It grounds me and makes life seem exciting. This is a real trip! How about you?

Randolph my friend this is a great question and excellent material for what could be a very interesting thread to read.

So I'll bite...

My first was a kit from our friends at Stew-Mac and back then I had no idea that there were Internet forums for guitar building nor did I know anyone who had ever built a guitar. So I was boldly headed to a place where no Hesh had gone before.... Not to mention that I had no woodworking experience either and every tool that I purchased was a comedy of errors for me to try to use. It's a wonder, looking back..., that I did not hurt myself more than I did.

IIRC I approached the kit building from the get-go as if it was a learning experience and that I would build a "next" and after that another "next."

Even though I tried to keep the perspective that the kit was a learning tool I fell into the trap that I needed to be ever so careful to not screw it up. I say the trap because it is a trap IMHO of sorts with this notion that your first will be very nearly perfect when they often are not which at least in my case was very true. What makes it a trap to me now is that perfection can be a monkey on your back so to speak and - may - result in being self limiting in that we avoid deviating from the instructions and trying something new.

What is really, really, really important IMHO about one's first is that if you intend to keep building guitars there is no better "mule" than the first as a platform to learn new things on. This is really true of early guitars in general.

Recently a VERY bright guy and a master Luthier told me something that has been on my mind all week. He said "it's only a guitar" and my interpretation of the meaning and the context that this statement was shared in is to be sure to enjoy the journey and don't let your/our inherent fears get in the way of what we can learn along the way and all the fun we can have too.

Now I can also see that if one is a nervous sort being nervous about how it will come out, fearful of the plethora of operations that make up guitar building could lead to actually making more mistakes than one would have made if they had been relaxed but focused.

So my .02 cents to you is to remember - it's just a guitar - enjoy the journey and don't let the desire and drive for perfection get in the way of all you can learn and all the fun you are going to have.

How did my first guitar turn out - terrible and it was so very bad that even the trash people would not take it away when I left it on the street on trash day..... True story too.... But I learned a lot and had a lot of fun.

Seems like to me that every guitar I build is a first of some kind. First Reso, first metal tricone , first tele with first hand wound pick ups, first electric lap steel and now first from scatch acoustic.
My first and second are in the avatar.
I wanted to learn to play bottle neck and couldn't find a reso that I like that I could afford so I sent for a body kit from Martin minus the neck parts and without a sound hole cut into the top, got the neck parts from StewMac and the cover plate and stuff from Randy Allen. While looking for info on resos I came across MIMF and found Mike Dotson who answered my questions and who also set me in the direction of how to build a metal body reso. Took a great inlay course there taught by Amy Hopkins, she is great repair person too.
It's gone better then I thought it would go and when ever I have a question I ask. It can save alot of time getting suggestions. The one thing I didn't see coming was the finishing. To me it takes as much time to finish it as to build it and is just as hard if not harder to master. Which is why alot of people keep Joe in bussiness.
It's addictive for sure and costly. I find it hard to just put something together with out it not developing more and more. For instance, I'm starting to make the bridge and I can't just copy a standard bridge but have to design a shape of my own and make it a pinless bridge. I just hope the sound on this one works out OK. I know I can build a somewhat pretty guitar but I'm really after a great sounding guitar.
But it sure is fun and keeps the creative juices flowing. And I like it when it all seems to come together in the end.
Sweet!

Randolph, I was lucky in that this forum and the UMGF (Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum) gave me some contacts with people already in volved in modifications, repairs, and building. Plus I was able to hook up with another forum member here, and with kits in hand, we both headed off to work with a skilled luthier who showed us the ropes and got us started. I was not able to continue with the two of them, but hooked up with another forum member who lives nearby, and who was generous and patient enough to get me through the first, and well into the second build, when I began to feel more confident and skilled. He also loaned me tools, jigs (to copy), molds, all kinds of things, most of which I have now (2 years later), but without which I would have been in a real conundrum.

So I got lucky. With all the info and help that is available, now is a very good time to start building guitars as a beginner.

I'm now helping three students at my school build a guitar each, built two that way last spring, and if I count these 'school' builds, I'm on guitars #9, 10, and 11 (of which 6 are really my own). I now feel like I can work through most any situation I run into, with a little patience, error correction, and advice and steering here and there from the forum friends

Oh, and BTW, my first turned out very nice. I've reworked a couple of parts of it - including the entire neck assembly, bridge, top coat - but it is now a VERY nice guitar, one that I'll most likely never let go of.

As far as previous experience, a tiny bit of shop experience (high school), plus some time building control-line airplanes as a teenager (I couldn't afford the radio-controlled components, but mine were just as large), which gave me a bit of feel for sanding, shaping wood, finishing, etc.

So how that first one goes depends on a lot of factors.

Hope I covered most of your queries...

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Ken Mitchell
Durham, NC

Educational. The first build was a little overwhelming. As I've gone on, things have gotten less overwhelming, but they're still educational.

Hesh, what a GREAT story and your advice is well appreciated, as usual. I think it's time to send my perfectionist on vacation! I laughed out loud on your "trashed" guitar
story. Chris, Ken, Flori - loved the stories. It seems I'm not that alone on the feeling of overwhelm at times. Thanks.

I feel like grandpa telling this story, so stop me if you've heard it.

In 1975 I was released after 4 year in the Navy. I had been reading about building during my enlistment, bought guitar building tools from Bill Lewis and had them shipped to my home. I set up shop in my older brother's living room, and could walk out the back yard to my dad's shop to use the band saw. Everything else was unpowered hand tools.

No plans, other than what I could draw up, I figured out my fret spacing by long division. I built a steel string guitar using classical guitar construction methods. I had no one to ask questions of, and really, really didn't have a clue about just about anything.

I owned a Martin guitar, looking back I should have just copied it, but no, I was going to jump ahead of all known things into glory! I did finish the guitar, that was the best thing about it, that I didn't give up, but it was the worst thing you could imagine.

I showed it to the local guitar store owner, and he asked me to start taking on repairs for him. I hung that guitar as a sign in front of my street window "David Newton, Luthier" carved on a board below it. I was in business. I hope the irony of that sign does not escape you.

That summer, wasps built a big nest inside the guitar. We always used to burn out wasps using a rag on a stick. I put the burning rag into the sound hole, and the dried cedar top lit off, and the guitar burnt to a crisp before I could extinguish it.

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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

Well, Randolph, what a wonderful sentiment you've expressed regarding your own experience. I found it quite moving, as it very much described my own experience. Granted, my very first first was a kit, and as an artist and longtime shop dweller, the process went fairly smoothly, and I wound up with a very playable guitar. In fact, I play it several times a week. Plus, if the kids down the street get up a sidelot game of baseball, I can take the neck off and knock one out of the park! Yeah, it's a little on the chunky side...

Now my second and third, which I built simultaneously from scratch, now that was a real test of my sanity and sense of self worth. Any given day in the shop elicited alternating fits of rage, ecstacy, terror, sorrow, and blliss... as well as many trips running to the computer to ask all manner of desperate questions of the infinitely generous and knowledgable members of this forum.

Ditto for the fourth, though maybe more so, as it was my first attempt at a cutaway. I'm now on my fifth, and I must say, the moments of blliss are beginning to outnumber the crying fits, and I'm already looking forward to the next build. It has indeed changed my life -- I never would have thought I had the patience to tackle such a monumental task, and some days I still question it, but I still look and listen in amazement every time I strum one of my own creations.

ps, I had to misspell blliss to avoid the dancing smiley.

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Before I came back to Taiwan I had attempted a number of Electric builds (more like assembly... I painted the stuff) that did not turn out too well if I finished it myself. So sometimes I gave up and just bought pre-finished parts. After I returned to Taiwan and did my year and a half in the army, I bought a Fender American Deluxe stratocaster. It was good but not the way I want it, so I started buying a mighty mite body, then that didn't do it so I went ahead and sanded down the body on the American Deluxe which took forever since you're talking about thick layers of polyester then attempted my sunburst with nothing but a cheap airbrush that worked horribly and propel units and spray cans. Later on I started accumulating tools like spray setup, and improved my technique (by waiting forever for the paint to cure rather than being impatient) and bought more tools like a drill press and stewmac buffing pads which served me well along with the drill press (which I got for free from some guy who doesn't want it). Then I felt like (after finishing a J-bass assembly) doing an acoustic since I got a router and built a cabinet figured that acoustics shouldn't be that far off. Was put off by the price of a serviced kit so I got a serviced kit with no neck and got a neck from ebay. The neck required modification for the truss rod to fit which really means I might as well carve my own neck. The first was not perfect it had its flaws like incorrect bridge positions that had to be corrected, and many other flaws. I gave the guitar away to a missionary team going to Afghanistan and I started a second, completely unserviced kit apart from fretboard. Things are going pretty well I managed to do a scarf joint with nothing more than sandpapers and planes and a jig saw. Good jigsaw pays for itself.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Randolph I am in the process of No 3 . My No 2 turned out to be truely one of a kind . I was too embarrassed to post pics on the forum and was glad to give it to a friend who now lives in Scotland. It actually sounded quite good but only looked good from a distance. The more distance the better Way too much haste and way too little patience,however I did learn some valuable lessons I think.
I spent approx 300 Hrs on my first,and despite destroying a couple of sides and gluing cauls on the bridge-plate while attaching the bridge,turned out not too shabby. I have lightened up the bracing and refretted it since then and enjoy playing it almost every day.
My wife is hoping that I start to make something I can sell soon as she fears tripping over guitars that I have left strewn about the house.
Happy building.

Craig.

To be succint, I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Randolph...this is a great thread and one that we should revisit occasionally.

I built my first 6 years ago. I was fortunate to meet John Hall on the UMGF who has a tendency of taking enthusiastic rookies under his wing and gently guiding them through the minefield of building a first guitar. I read everything I could get my hands on and lurked on MIMF and 13th Fret...long before the OLF was formed. My only woodworking experience consisted of 2x4 stud work 10 years earlier and I had virtually no tools. Prior to making the commitment, I ordered a big box of scrap wood from Martin...necks, bridges, tops, backs and bracewood. I taught myself how to use a chisel and carved neck and brace wood. I experimented with various glues and even finished a top and back with Nitro in order to give me some confidence that I could complete such a project.

Once I convinced myself that I could take on such a project, I ordered the Martin kit components through John Hall. John was able to rein in my overly enthusiastic thoughts of building a 12 string first time out of the shoot, but he wasn't able to convince me not to use HHG or not to install curly maple bindings instead of the factory plastic. It took 1.5 years to complete the first which was made on my kitchen table as my schedule permitted. I made a lot of components over and even had to repeat a few key operations in order to get the right angles and squeeze out a decent fit and finish. Each step that I completed gave me confidence, stiffened my resolve and renewed my enthusiasm.

What began as a "one-time project" evolved into a program to make 3 legacy guitars for my sons along with detailed journals showing them how to approach goals as well as how to deal with failure and never giving up while continuing to strive for perfection and success. The Legacy Program sort of evolved since then as well.

The first guitar was one of the most transforming incidents of my life...and it has had a significantly positive influence on me personally as well as the relationship with my sons as they were approaching their teenage years. As a result, the guitar is now a very important part of their lives as well...and my first guitar named "Mojo" is still being played almost daily.

If I have only one message to pass along to the new builders at any level, it is to immerse yourself into the project and just have fun. Feel free to experiment along the way, take your time, develop patience, be honest in evaluating your work ...and enjoy the journey. You'll soon find out that there really is no destination...just one continuous adventure. Each of us has a different personality and learns in a different manner. Find a builder or 2 who are approachable and who connect with you and your learning style. It can be a lonely endeavor at first, but know that there are a lot of us who have taken from the experts as we learned and are now anxious and committed to helping new builders going forward in any way that we can.

I have had 3 individuals in my building life who have made the greatest impact on any success that I have had...John Hall, Bob Cefalu and Mario Proulx and I thank them for their encouragement, instruction and even the kicks in the butt that made it possible for me to begin to learn woodworking and guitar building.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

What fabulous stories! One of the main things that spurred me into these questions was how my "outer" technical calamities seem to draw me into a deeper "inner" place. It isn't just the building going on but a deepening of my own inner process. I wanted to see if others were experiencing that too. It seems you are. I'm glad to go deeper and glad I'm not the only one too.

What a great question. In 1998 I got hurt at work. I had to go through some serious shoulder surgery . I was off work and rehabing from the operation. I wasn't allowed to drive and was feeling low and sorry for myself.
A friend of mine , Jim Kandibowski insisted I go on a road trip as soon as I got my license back and treat myself to a visit to CF Martin. I was an avid woodworker and thought that the trip may be worth the time. I was just overcome with the visit and tour. I walked into GMC after the tour and met Royce Getz and Jeremy Trach. They both showed me kits and wood. We chatted a bit and I got a catalog and info on the kits.
When I got home I told my wife I am going to build a guitar. She reminded me that we didn't have extra cash as I was on workers comp. I went to the store the next day and on a whim bought a scratch off ticket and hit for $500. The rest is history. I got an HD28 kit. It came out ok but sounds and still plays great. The web wasn't like it is today and there was very little info out there. Steve Kovacik was a big help. I had about 100 hours in the first one. I built 14 the first year and havn't looked back.
I am glad to have shared what I learned to so many. JJ is one of many that I guess i got hooked on this hobby. JJs' first was a 00028 I think. I know we had many a late night conversation. To all enjoy and keep it simple , the strings go on the outside.
john hall
blues creek guitars

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

My journey into guitar building also began with a kit, martin 000 cutaway. I had retired 4 years ago may 1st 2005 and wanted a winter project and sprung for the kit. I had built model airplanes most of my life so tools and such were not a problem. I will say the mistakes were all fixable and the guitar came out much better than I expected. I added a little complication by changing the plastic binding to curly maple and added herringbone purfling but everything else came in the box.

I find that the expense of this hobby is tools as each year I add to the collection, but the guitars keep getting better and power tools sure make the trip easier.

Some photos of the 1st guitar and my other builds are on my webshots
http://community.webshots.com/user/cloudbustermac

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

My first and its a recent memory, being only on number two, was an enjoyably strange process! Firstly as a player who had always dreamed of one day building an instrument, I really did think that when the opportunity came it would be only once - that I would build one and my lust for such things would be satisfied... how wrong I was on that score. I also when settng out did not really have a clue about what standard I would achieve and in hindsight would have perhaps taken a little more care here and there given the surpriingly good tone of the first.

Because I thought I would only ver build one, I pushed the boat out - nice set of flamed Macassar, high quality Euro spruce top, Flamed Koa bindings to body fingerboard and headstock etc... mailnly to push myself a bit, but also because that was combination i liked, simple as that. I had a good mentor whose facilities and tools I used and without whom, the result would have been alot poorer.... As the build went on and I my skills began to improve, so did my expectations, and as a result I was becoming less satisfied with teh parts I had build first - so should I redo those given the new skills? I decided not to so that the fisrt represented an honest reflection of where that journey had got me to, as well as a reminder of what needed to be improved second time around and so on. The result was an honest instrument with great tone, but cosmetically flawed here and there, but I love it! It represents the beginning of the journey now, rather than a whole completed journey that I thought the process would be at the outset... Darn trouble is once you build one....

My first guitar building journey began as just that - a journey around the globe!

In the mid-eighties, with youth on my side, time on my hands, few responsibilities and some savings, I agreed to meet up with my brother in London. I was staying in Perth with my parents at the time and he was visiting from the Czech Republic but would be visiting relatives in England later in the year. I visited a travel agent here in Perth to discuss my travel arrangements and was somehow persuaded to outlay the extra cash and buy a round-world ticket. I must have been even more gullible and naive in those days.

I made it to London, but somehow missed out on the planned meeting with my brother and, with Canada as my next destination, headed for Toronto. After a week's detour to Boston I flew to Vancouver and, with the assistance of one of the city music store's guitar repair guys, managed to find a source of wood suitable for guitar building. He phoned ahead on my behalf and, after a long walk to North Vancouver, I ended up at the workshop of Jean Larrivee whose significance in the world of lutherie was lost on me at the time. He was very patient and helpful if I recall and left me alone to rummage through an impressive pile of Sitka tops at the front of his shop. I'm sure I didn't know what attributes I was supposed to be looking for, but I left with five tops which looking back would have been AA grade - perfect for my feeble first attempts.

Later, after poring over the local phone book, I made a long bus trip from the city centre to a store in the east end of Vancouver where I managed to find what I thought was a suitable slab of birds-eye maple - pretty exotic stuff for me at the time, but not ideally suited given that it was slab-cut and not at all dry.

With my precious stash of wood securely wrapped in tape and wedged under my arm, I lugged it around the globe for the next month or so, eventually back to Australia. I was pretty sick of it by the time I arrived back in Perth. With the benefit of hindsight, it would certainly have been cheaper and easier to wait another ten years for the internet to arrive and order on-line!

With the maple re-sawn by a local Perth cabinet maker, I made my way back home to Derby in the north of Western Australia. With extreme heat and humidity the norm, no prior woodworking skills and few suitable tools, I ponder on how I managed to thickness the back, top and sides and assemble that first instrument. It wasn't a great success as you can no doubt imagine, but it defied logic and survived and kindled an interest which has flourished since, to the extent that I'm positive I'll be building instruments until the day I fall off the perch.

The common story seems to be that regardless of the level of success of our first instruments, once guitar building is in the blood, it's there forever.

Cheers
Pete

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Cheers
Pete

My first was an electric I built about 8 years ago. I have built stuff all my life and, at the time, was building custom furniture on the side. I wanted an electric for a group I played with at church and couldn't afford what I wanted so I thought: "Gee, I should be able to build what I want a lot cheaper. After all it's just wood with some metal parts."

Everything was scratch-built except for a pre-slotted fingerboard and it came out quite well, after about 15 months. It was not cheaper. I didn't buy too many new tools but pretty much used what I had. I played it for about 2 years before I went back to the acoustic; I just prefer playing acoustics.

After that I built a bowed psaltry for my girlfriend, now my wife, and then built a mountain dulcimer. I've been wanting to build an acoustic for some time but moved the shop, bought a house, completely remodeled the interior, moved/rebuilt the shop again and, finally, was able to start the acoustic last year.

I am already commited to building more than one and have been building jigs and acquiring tools as I go through the build process for number one. I'm hooked!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

My first - the back seat of a -54 Ford. Opps, different first.

My toe in the water was a tenor uke built from all scraps. The second was a tenor uke built on a gourd and scraps Both turned out well so stepping a little deeper, I bought plans for a Panormo replica. Except for being slightly over built it turned out well and I learned a lot and of course spent mucho on tools. By then I was hooked and have not looked back. After a number of standard classicals from Rodriguez plans, I have designed my own nylon string cross-over guitar from scratch. That feels like diving into the deep end from the high board.

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GEO
perpetual beginner

My first (and only so far - I just started #2) was definitely a learning experience. It was a kit from LMI. I thought
I had taken on WAY more than I could handle when I first took the kit out of the box. It took me about 18
months to complete. A good portion of that time was spent just looking at it and thinking about how I would
accomplish the next step. There were many "Dave Thangs" (Also know as screw ups) including having it fall on a
concrete floor during finishing and gluing the bridge in the wrong place. After removing the fretboard and repositioning
it because I didn't want to remove the bridge it is less than stellar cosmetically but plays well and sounds good.
I play it almost every night and still can't believe I built something that sounds as good as it does. Hopefully
#2 will play and sound at least as good as #1 and will look much better.

All in all it was a great experience despite all the "Dave Thangs".

Dave

My first acoustic - started on January 1, 2005 after the Rose Bowl game was over - was in some senses a kit. I bought a set of the StewMac "Herringbone Guitar" plans in October 2004 and started acquiring the necessary parts from Ebay, LMII, StewMac, etc. It took about 5 months to complete, and I documented the whole process from start to finish on this web page:

http://www.cyrguitars.com/AcousticProje ... uitar.html

The neck and top were Martin factory rejects, the sides were pre-bent for me by LMII, and the herringone purflings were the pre-bent ones from StewMac. The braces for the top were the pre-shaped set from StewMac, but I made the back braces myself.

In general I followed the process documented on Charles Hoffman's website:

http://www.hoffmanguitars.com/building_a_guitar.htm

The step-by-step instructions and pictures there are really helpful, especially for a newbie to acoustic guitar building.

--Steve

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---Steve

My first was a pieced-together kit of sorts. Mahogany back/sides(unbent/unjoined) from Stewmac, a joined Englemann top and neck from CFM, and the rest was all hand work. I piddled with that thing for about 6 months. After a week long vacation I came home to find my best friend and fellow luthier, Olin Davis of Rattlesnake Mandolins, had built a guitar from scratch in that week except for finish so I got on mine. In a couple of weeks it was done. I finished it with the neck on and the neck angle was too low but it worked for several years. I sold it to a guy and forgot his name...

...I was lucky enough to have the guy I sold it to call me up and offer it back. I paid him what he had paid me and he hand delivered it. What a great guy too. After a neck reset and some setup work it has now become my number one gig/demo guitar.

Detail wise it's probably an 8 whereas my current ones are 9.5+(IMO). Soundwise it's a horse. I had several offers a few weeks ago in Nashville to sell it at some pretty high prices I thought but this one ain't going anywhere now. One fellow had tried all the old Martins that were there for sale (probably at least 15 D-18's 1947 or earlier) and said this one won hands-down. I know I just got lucky. I really didn't have a clue other than I referred to Cumpiano's book "Guitarmaking Tradition and Technology". I still love that book although alot of stuff I don't do his way it's still a great, great reference.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

I started my first around '86-'87, but as far as making the neck and bending the sides. The got married, when back to university for a second degree, bought a house, started a business, had kids...the guitar project sat and waited for about 13 years till I could get back to it.

I had one book, Stanley Doubtfire's book on classical guitar building. While an excellent book in its day, well written, clearly presented, etc. and still relevant, I had nothing like what is available now. No mentor, no classes available, no internet. I had to go it all on my own.

The process was challenging, mostly because i had no reference about what I was doing well, or not. There was no target.

The end result is adequate. Sometimes I wonder if I should go back into that guitar and "improve" it, or just leave it alone as a document of what I accomplished on guitar #1. I tend to think that I should leave it alone.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

My first instrument was a Stew Mac banjo kit, soon after I was married. I loved it, and decided that when I get "older" I would learn to build instruments. I figured it would have to wait until I retired - work, farming, babies and building a house seemed to take priority. Then I had an opportunity to take a class from Frank Finnochio at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. I knew the only way I could manage to learn was to take a "vacation" and devote 100% of time. I have never regretted that. It sure shortens the learning curve when you have someone with you every step of the way to demonstrate and answer your questions. It saved years of frustration I'm sure. So, my first build was a pleasurable experience - it took about a year later to get "tooled" up and build the second, then came the 3rd, 4th ........

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John Ressler

My first build was a Martin Kit, as was my second. My first scratch build was an OM that I took specs off of a Martin that I had in shop at the time. I built it way to heavy but all in all It turned out to a fine playing guitar. It had some cosmetic issues but no real structural issues. In fact it is kind of a Timex. It takes alicking but keeps on singing.